A common problem with engineered wood structural components such as trusses is that they are unable to carry loads which exceed the compression limitations of the wood bearing surfaces. Specifically, a truss or plate member fabricated from softer species of lumber such as spruce-pin-fir is subject to failure due to crushing when the compression load is perpendicular to the wood grain. Heretofore, the solution to the design limitation of the bearing surface was to add an additional ply to the truss which gave the needed bearing area, but this solution is expensive and adds unnecessary weight to the structure. Another solution was to encapsulate the end of the truss in the heavy metal U-member and to place a heavy metal plate or U-member on the wood plate beneath the metal encapsulated truss end. This solution is also expensive, adds unnecessary weight to the structure and there are no side benefits from such a "T" connection as will be discussed below with the present invention.
Attempts to decrease the cost of the heavy metal bearing plates using specially designed sheet metal connectors have been unsuccessful. Those prior art sheet metal connectors that did not channel the load away from the contact area of the end of the truss were simply of little use. Those sheet metal connectors that attempted to spread the load failed due to buckling of the thin metal. The use of "off the shelf" connectors have also failed due to the concentration of nails directly under the bearing area; resulting in splitting of the plate member.